Fat Juicy Mung Bean Sprouts

I prefer the fat and juicy mung bean sprouts, not the skinny little ones made in jars. You would be surprised how much bean sprouts you get from 1/4 of a cup! After some searching, I found the South Koreans make them this way more than a skinny or short type of sprouts. The weight on top of the mung beans “forces” them to sprout very thick. It is awesome.

I like having a lot of mung bean sprouts in my stir-fry types of meals. I have also made some mung bean sprout patties that were very good, and they were egg-free to boot. You can eat the bean sprouts raw, cooked or stir-fried.

Making them this way stretches the amount of beans you have, too. Win-win! The method below is what I found works well for me. The instructions will sound complicated and laborious. It is not, it just reads that way. At the end of this article, there are photos of what the beans look from Day 1 to Day 4, when I remove them from my make-shift sprouter, and after they are rinsed.

Rinse the mung beans well in cool water. Put into the 1 quart bowl and cover the beans with cool water. Set aside for at least 8 hours, up to 24 hours. Note now – Always rinse in cold water.

Day 1
Rinse beans well in cold water. In the colander, put a 2-thicknesses thick, (2 layers), of the cheesecloth onto the bottom of the pot. I cut it into a circle 1/2″ wider than the colander bottom. Stretch over the bottom and fold-tuck the edges into the edge of the colander bottom.

Put the rinsed beans onto the bottom of the colander on top of the first layers of cheesecloth, spreading the beans out evenly. Put a matching piece of the 2-thicknesses thick of the cheesecloth to cover the top of the beans. Rinse the whole thing to moisten the beans and the cheesecloth layers surrounding the beans, tipping out any extra water. Place into the larger pot. Put the plate face-down on top of the top layer of the cheesecloth. Add more plates or weight, (I use my fermenting weights), to add up to about 2 pounds.

Cover with a lid that cuts out ALL light, or a black or dark cloth. Set aside on the counter for 24 hours.

Day 2 and Day 3*
Remove the cover, weight and plate, leaving the cheesecloth layers as they are. Rinse the beans well with cold water, tipping out any extra water and replace it back into the larger pot. Repeat the plate, weight and covering, set aside for another 24 hours.

*If they are not growing quickly because your house is cool, grow 1 more day or until you just see that leaves about to appear. I get the leaves sometimes on the 4th day. Note– If you live in a place that is very dry, you may need to remoisten the beans more than once a day! Check them after 8 to 12 hours. If the cheesecloth is still moist, cool. Otherwise, repeat the moistening part. The beans will not sprout if they get dry.

Day 4
Remove the cheesecloth-covered bean sprouts from the colander, carefully grabbing the whole packet-like thing. Carefully remove the top layer of cheesecloth. See the photos below. If you do not like the tiny roots at the bottom coming out of the bottom layer of cheesecloth, you can snip them off. I do not. Gently grab a “tuft” of the sprouts and pull straight up and off the bottom cheesecloth and place into a large bowl. Repeat until all of the sprouts are removed or you can do the rinsing off of the bean skins in batches, which is what I tend to do. You WILL have a bunch of the bean skins. The next step easily removes them.

Note – I put a screened thingie on the drain of my sink to catch the bean skins when I dump out the bowl with the bean skins. It makes it easier to dump them into the composter or trash and keeps them from going down the drain. Also, you may notice my beans tend to have a pink blush. This is NOT mold or anything like that. It is the variety of mung bean sprouts I get that does it when they get to a certain stage. They even blush when in the soil for growing plants. I know, because I checked. laughing…

I found it was easier and less messy to place the bowl in my sink. Fill the bowl with the bean sprouts with cool water. Swish around the sprouts. The skins tend to go to the bottom of the bowl. I’ll grab a handful, swish them until the skins are gone. I place the cleaned sprouts into a colander and repeat until the sprouts are all bean-skin-free. Again, I found doing them in batches much easier and faster.

Rinse the sprouts one more time and drain well. Put into a glass container with a lid, a zip-bag or other container and store in the refrigerator. They should be good for about one week.

Once you make your own sprouts, it is very hard to buy the ones already done at the store or use the skinny little ones done in the jar. It is way cheaper, too. Enjoy!